Okay, after much going back and forth and planning I’ve decided on a full relaunch of Mistermask, so grab a seat (or an RSS feed) and get ready for some supernatural action and adventure! …you know, again. – hr

I’m aware that most of my current viewers are artists and creatives of one stripe or another, so I thought you’d find this interesting.  I listen to podcasts quite a lot, and one of my more recent additions to my playlist is The Accidental Creative and this week’s installment gave me just the swift kick in the pants that I needed.

In brief, it’s an interview with marketing guru Seth Godin (author of Linchpin) and this concept of becoming indispensable.  What I found key about the interview is what he has to say about overcoming fear, or the lizard-brain.  Overcoming the resistance that comes from within, when you’re struck with any idea that stretches you out of your comfort zone.

It’s here if you’re interested: The Accidental Creative #186

I’m not quite ready to make the plunge into drawing digitally, I’ve read the testimonials and I read the book, but I’m not ready – not fully.

I experimented with digitally inking Mister Mask in my earlier strips, but my pencils are way too loosey-goosey and it felt like I was spending too much time trying to fill in the blanks, which I do easier with an ink brush in my hand. But I had an interesting experience this week.

I usually letter the strip after it’s been inked, which often has me jiggling balloons and cutting dialogue to fit without obscuring the art too badly. I’m aware that some of my favorite cartoonists lay down their dialogue first (Mr. Kurtz I’m looking at you) but that hasn’t been enough to get me to do the same – until this week.

I had a houseful of kids and teens recently and found quietly drawing – difficult, so I decided to open up a strip template in Illustrator and just drop in some dialogue. Well, kid’s shenanigans aside this went so well – seeing the words and balloons in place – that I dropped another layer under them and quickly made a sketch brush in a faint color and started doodling.

It’s not ready for print, but it was a fully workable layout…in harmony – for once – with the captions and word balloons. I printed these out, words and all, set up my light table and got to work. In no time I was looking at pencilled pages. I’m not drawing digitally, but I’m a step closer. Gonna be nice to ignore inking those areas where a word balloon’s gonna fall anyway. I’m beginning to feel like I can do this. Peace. ~ hr

Okay, it’s my fault. The navigation buttons are ‘down’ because I’m a horrible WordPress hacker who knows only enough to be dangerous. I’m in the process of updating my version of WordPress and trying to make the transition transparent and I apparently set off a code landmine. Things will be back to normal soon. Peace. ~ hr

I’ve started a comic without a script before. Hell, I’ve started a comic without a story before. Honestly, be thankful that I can’t find the completed pages to that little “work of art”, or I might be tempted to inflict them upon you. Point is, as both the writer and artist on my projects, I have always been one to fudge the scripting, and rush to the actual drawing straight from the plot – in my head. I guess it seemed exciting to start off not knowing – myself – how the plot was going to play out.

But I’ve got to tell you, I repent. I have seen the error of my ways. To carry the metaphor a bit, I confess…that I started the current Mister Mask storyline ORIGINS without a script. Ack! Yes…all I had was a general idea of Naz and Nina meeting and how that would…

What? No more? I’m a little ashamed to say it, but yes, that’s all I had.

Now, for years, as I worked with these characters on and off the web, I’ve known that it all began when Naz met Nina. The exact details of that meeting where never realized – until the first strips of this story.

But, after wrestling with this story, wrangling it to cover my bases, and be entertaining for months – I’ve gotten it all scripted out.  Yeah, It’s been plotted for a while, broken down scene-by-scene even. But nothing, and I mean nothing matches having a script with dialogue and directions.

It’s freed me up to focus on the art a little more, and to – dare I say it? – start scripting the next (much shorter, I assure you) story line! It’s a good feeling.  It’s the simple things.  Peace. ~ hr